Sixers let crucial game slip away

Milwaukee Bucks' Monta Ellis (11) and Philadelphia 76ers' Nick Young fight for the loose ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

MILWAUKEE — It would be a tad premature to say a mid-February game carried a must-win scenario. And it would be a bit naïve to say the 76ers’ postseason hopes hinged on the result of their 51st game.

But, in both cases, it kind of did.

The Sixers had a chance to steal a game against the team directly ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings, the one holding the rights to the final playoff berth.

Instead, a final-seconds mental mistake cost the Sixers in a 94-92 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center.

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The Sixers had the ball with 11.7 seconds to go in a two-point game when Jrue Holiday’s shot clanged off, but Holiday forced a jumpball against Milwaukee’s Luc Mbah a Moute by tying him up at the high post.

The Sixers won the tip, with Holiday batting it to Royal Ivey, but Ivey threw it away as time expired.

“We had two timeouts left,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said of the final-ticks runoff.

Collins clearly was frustrated by the loss, limiting his postgame press conference to 90 seconds.

Ivey seemed penitent of the moment that got away from him.

“Honestly, we knew throughout the game, we had said we had three previously,” said Ivey, an eight-year veteran. “Nobody was thinking call a timeout in that situation. The onus is on us in that situation to make that call. I got the ball.

“I definitely should’ve called timeout. I wasn’t thinking that. I was thinking, ‘make a play, get somebody an open shot.’”

In failing to handle the moment, the Sixers (22-29) stumbled into the All-Star break trailing Milwaukee (26-25) by four games – instead of two – for the East’s final playoff spot.

“Just one of those situations you wish you could have back,” Nick Young said.

Said Holiday: “Unfortunately situations happen and we didn’t get another chance to tie up the game. It is disappointing, but we have to move on from it.”

Moving on from it requires more than the seven-day All-Star break, which began once the Bucks stalked off with this win. It’ll require the Sixers having to win a clear majority of their 31 remaining games if they are to return to the postseason.

To be fair, the Sixers held the lead in this one until early in the fourth quarter. So letting this one slip away had more to do with their 15 turnovers over the game’s entirety, as opposed to Ivey’s lapse late.

Milwaukee shot better than 50 percent after halftime and erased a double-digit second-half deficit against the Sixers, who lost for the first time in the 21 games in which they took a lead into the fourth.

The Sixers shot 6-for-23 in the fourth as Milwaukee came away with the win, taking a 3-0 season series lead and clinching the tiebreaker, should these teams need one as the playoffs loom.

Despite a pair of problems, the Sixers took advantage of a ridiculously slow start from Milwaukee to take a sizeable lead.

Young, who went off for 12 of the Sixers’ first 20 points, had two personal fouls eight minutes into the game and didn’t return until midway through the second quarter. When Young returned, he never got back in rhythm and scored only two points more.

As if that wasn’t enough, Collins gave Evan Turner the hook less than four minutes into the game. Turner committed two turnovers and missed his only attempt in that span, before Collins subbed out Turner for the rest of the first quarter.

Eventually, Turner turned around his game. He even hit the duck-under layup that cut the Bucks’ lead to two, at 93-91, in the final minute. Turner, who hasn’t exactly had the best month of his career, scored 20 points on 8-for-19 shooting.

The teams traded the lead for a majority of the fourth quarter, with Monta Ellis finally awakening from a 14-minute scoreless spell at the start of the game to finish with 27 points. It was Ellis’ bucket and a free throw soon after that gave Milwaukee the lead for good, inside the final minute.

For the Sixers, Holiday heads to Houston for the All-Star Game on a personally solid note, with 16 points to go with 12 assists.

He could’ve looked back fondly on that jumpball he won against Mbah a Moute, too, had it not been for that miscue.